Northern California enters moderate drought stage

Northwest California has moved into a moderate drought designation, according to the National Weather Service, but the agriculture community hasn't been impacted -- at least not yet.

"We're not seeing any significant effects at this time," Humboldt County Farm Bureau Executive Director Katherine Ziemer said. "Humboldt County is such a rainy area that we don't usually experience a lot of problems with the drought. When others are having a real drought issue, we have a mild drought.

"It's not as hard-hitting as it is in other areas of the state or even the nation," Ziemer said.

The weather service recently released updated drought information, placing all of Northwest California under a "D1 Drought-Moderate" designation on the U.S. drought monitor. In February, the region was given a "D0-Abnormally Dry" ranking.

"What caused it to go to D1 was well below normal precipitation from January through early May," weather service hydrologist Reginald Kennedy said.

From Jan. 1 through May 10, rainfall in Humboldt and Mendocino counties ranged from 25 to 50 percent of normal, Kennedy said. No significant precipitation is expected in the next seven days, he added.

As a result, the range lands and pastures are drying sooner, plant life and trees are drier than normal, and rivers are running below normal for this time of year, Kennedy said. The reservoirs are running close to normal.

In about two weeks, the Humboldt County Agriculture Department will began surveying agriculture producers to assess potential production impacts, Commissioner Jeff Dolf said.

"When we have adverse environmental conditions, we determine whether those conditions are severe enough to warrant a disaster designation for the county," Dolf said. "One of the main impacts really for us is to the range land grasses and to their productive potential, and how well those grasses can continue to support livestock and cattle."

For now, Kennedy encourages people to use water wisely for home gardening and irrigating.

The dry weather is caused by a strong ridge of high pressure in the Eastern Pacific forcing weather systems that come in across the Pacific Ocean farther north into British Columbia, Washington, northern Oregon and northern Nevada, Kennedy said.